Hope Street wind turbine continues to teach

Sunday

The sense of pride and accomplishment that Hope Street Academy staff and students had when the blades on the school's wind turbine began turning about 18 months ago remains today.

"Instead of the kids who accomplished it (getting the wind turbine), the kids now are generating questions, testing the data, forming hypothesis," said principal Dale Noll. "We're still the only urban school in Kansas with a wind turbine. The pride is there. It's just now a different sense of pride."

Miranda Forgey, a Hope Street science teacher, said the wind turbine also has generated several student-led projects and has been used in her algebra class to determine the relationship between wind speed and power.

"We found there was a definite correlation," Forgey said. "It was a good way to take these numbers and make sense of them. We're trying to make as many connections to the real world."

Dakota May, 17, a Hope Street senior, was one of four Hope Street students — Chaz Graber, Quincy McCord and Davyan Jones were the other three — who placed first in K-State's KidWind competition last spring.

Having won the contest and having the wind turbine on his school's grounds, May said he wants to do more with wind energy after he graduates in May.

"I honestly had no idea what I was going to do after school," he said. "Now I'm looking at a program at PCI (Pinnacle Career Institute) as a wind energy technician. This is something I'm definitely interested in."

The data that was coming from the wind turbine intrigued Chikara Hibino, 17, a Hope Street senior. He said for six months he tracked the amount of energy the turbine was using and how much is was producing.

"At first it was just taking the same energy it was using," he said. "Then, over time, it started to add more."

Hibino said he believes the wind turbine is a "great learning device."

"I learned a lot from it," he said. "It's a great thing for our school."

Eager to pass on her passion for energy conservation and renewable energy to those younger than she, Heather Heim, 17, a senior, was one of a handful of Hope Street students who went to Stout Elementary last spring to talk to the school's students about how the wind turbine impacts the use of electricity. In addition, she has changed many of her own habits at home — like conserving water and unplugging unused appliances — because of her involvement with her school's wind turbine program.

"It's changed my whole outlook on it (saving energy)," Heim said. She said having interactive classes that discuss energy conservation and the environment are important for a school like Hope Street.

"So we can make a difference in the world," she said.

Thomas Fulbright and Scott Schwarz, Hope Street teachers who helped the dedicated group of students get the wind turbine for the school, said the renewable energy apparatus has meant more and continues to mean more to the school than just gathering data.

They said when the former Hope Street students gathered signatures of support from the school's neighbors and then got approval from the Topeka Planning Commission and city council, they learned what community involvement meant.

"The work that they had to do to get the wind turbine was incredible and something that they really fought for it. It took a lot of work." Fulbright said. "It's a good example of how people even their age can make a difference."

"They're learning problem-solving skills and work on big projects where they can see they are making a difference," Schwarz said. "It's a tool to learn how to work with each other."

Angela Deines can be reached

at (785) 295-1285

or angela.deines@cjonline.com.

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